Strategies That Support Young Readers Literacy Development Alice

Strategies That Support Young Readers’ Literacy Development Alice F. Snyder, Ed. D. April 18, 2006

Reflections of the Past • Quickwrite—What do you remember about your literacy experiences (reading and writing) during your… --pre-kindergarten years? --kindergarten-first grade years? --second-third grade years? 2

“Stages” of Literacy Development • Related to how a child’s concepts about written and spoken language develops over time from his experiences • “Stages” used to give us a sense (tendencies) of what readers have accomplished, where they are now, where they are headed, and what we can do to plan for their needs at any given time • Generally speaking, each “stage” characterizes the average child at that point • “Stages” aren’t discrete—may move back and forth between “stages”, reach a plateau, staying awhile, then move ahead 3

Emergent (Birth to 5 -6 yrs) Logographic (Ehri, 1991: Juel, 1991) • Egocentric; sensory contact, rapid language growth based on need • May “read” signs, labels when associated with the object, but not when isolated in print (Mc. Donald’s, Lucky Charms) • Very young don’t find meaning in printed symbols on their own; may scribble and make letter-like forms on paper without intention to communicate a message • Begin to name & write some letters; become aware that printed texts convey messages, and they write for purpose of communicating meaning, but read & write in unconventional way; associate word(s) with picture clues; use pictures to “read” • Like rhyme, repetition, alliteration, magic and personification; like to hear their favorite stories repeated many times 4

Early Reading (K-1, 5 -7 yrs) Alphabetic (Ehri, 1991; Juel, 1991) • Begin to realize that meaning is mapped onto print in systematic ways • Early alphabetic- use some letter-sound correspondences • Later alphabetic- do cipher reading (decoding phoneme by phoneme); can segment words • Developed Alphabetic Principle; often spell words the way they are articulated when spoken such as ‘V’ for the PH in ‘phone’ and or ‘HAN’ for ‘chain’ (manner of articulation or identity of sound); also with affrication (‘DR’ spelled ‘JR’ and ‘TR’ spelled ‘CHR’); later may write ‘GOWING’ for ‘going’ • Later, recognize 100 s of sight words; can monitor own reading and writing; begin to use strategies (searching, cross-checking, selfcorrection) as they monitor • Become “glued to print” which hinders comprehension • Will read familiar texts with phrasing and fluency 5

Transitional/Growing Independence (K-2; 5 -7 yrs) Orthographic (Ehri, 1991; Juel, 1991) • More sophisticated and complex understandings of written language • See chunks of letters associated with spelling patterns; familiar with sequence of letters in written words which helps them see letters in groups or clusters • Not so “glued to print”; focus on meaning; automaticity fosters fluency • Word study important due to reading books with extensive vocabulary not in their reading or writing vocab repertoires • Some may be transitional spellers • Less egocentric; appreciate stories involving lives of others 6

Reading to Learn (gr. 3 -6; 8 -12 yrs. ) • Reading across the curriculum; grasping complex, sophisticated informational text • Often where many “successful” readers in primary grades begin to experience difficulties with reading—Why? • Reader needs good repertoire of word attack and comprehension skills/strategies because of complex and abstract concepts associated with each discipline (increased conceptual load) and comprehension tasks required • Can put themselves into the places of characters & can verbalize their judgments about books and author’s style, characters’ actions, etc. • Spelling more conventional; have moved from relying on sound to relying on visual memory of what a word looks like in print • Solves problems in reading independently • Reads with phrasing and fluency 7

Abstract Reading (Gr. 7+; 13+ yrs) • Between 11 and 14 years of age (formal operations-Piaget) • Can construct multiple hypotheses, consider multiple viewpoints, and can mull over logical alternatives • Make more elaborate evaluations and judgments of reading • Read and write longer, more complex and abstract texts • Readers at this stage are more equipped with the reading skills and higher level thinking necessary to read aesthetically (reading for pleasure) and efferently (reading to learn); however, they tend to do the least amount of reading! • Conventional spelling stage 8

Implications of Stage Theory for Instruction • First and foremost, provide developmentally appropriate literacy instruction and experiences for children (IRA and NAEYC 1998) • Incorporate instruction in phonics as a STRATEGY for identifying words rather than an approach to teaching reading in itself • Gear instruction to the “stage” in which a child displays the most characteristics • Keep reading instruction functional and contextual • Incorporate a lot of practice and application through reading authentic children’s “texts” 9

Effective Strategy. Based Instruction • Should be functional and contextual; comes from what children are reading and writing and what they need • It involves… □Teacher modeling □Scaffolding □Group practice □Peer teaching □Integration 10

Strategy Instruction takes place within the Five Essential Elements of Reading • • • Phonemic awareness Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension National Reading Panel 11

Strategy Activities: Phonemic Awareness • Reading aloud (shared reading) • Shared writing; pattern stories • Onset and rime activities *Word Play Books—specially designed to highlight sounds in words, such as Each, Pear, Plum (Janet & Allan Ahlberg, 1978) *I Spy—”I spy something that rhymes with…” * Rounding Up The Rhymes • Segmentation activities *Elkonin boxes 12

Activity Demo: Elkonin Boxes • From a book you have read to your students, you have chosen some one syllable word with onset and rime patterns you would like to reinforce. You create some Elkonin Boxes to use. 13

Strategy Activities: Phonics • Masking • Hinky Pinks: Large hog: _____ig Plane in the rain: _____et Unhappy boy: _____ad • Secret Messages: Take H from He and put in W. (We) Take b from bike and put in l. (like) Take d from do and put in t. (to) Take l from late and put in sk. (skate) Secret message: We like to skate. • Sorts (pattern/spelling, sound) • Making Words • Word Building 14

Activity Demo: Diphthong (Sound) Sort • In your reading of a story with your class, you notice many words containing one type of diphthong. You give groups of students a set of words, some with diphthongs and some without, asking them to sort words into two columns according to whether they have a common sound in them or not. Students explain why they put words under yes and words under no. tough thrown cow pillow through powerful compound grown amount now Yes low fountain thousand growl bowed No 15

Activity Demo: Making Words • • Students are given letters, such as: a, d, D, n, s, and t. The teacher gives them the following directives: • • • Use two letters to make at. Add a letter to make sat. Take away a letter to make at. Change a letter to make an. Add a letter to make Dan. Change a letter to make tan. Take away a letter to make an. Add a letter to make and. Add a letter to make sand. Now break up your word and see what word you can make with all the letters. (stand). Students could also see how many other words they can make, list them, and sort them. • Additional letters can be given depending on the knowledge level of the student(s). Cunningham, from Gunning, 2004 16

Activity Demo: Word Building • Use the following letters to create a sequence in which you change up the beginnings, endings, and middles of words throughout the sequence. Can you end with the same word you started with in the sequence? a, s, n, t, f, i, x, g sag 17

Strategy Activities: Fluency • • • Practice Reading Choral Reading Reader’s Theatre Class Books Poetry and student-written books are good sources of texts to help develop fluency • Syllasearch- helps with chunking words for decoding 18

Activity Demo: Syllasearch • You have read the book Amos and Boris (William Steig) to your students. You want your students to practice reading it to build fluency but first you want to help them identify some words with more than one syllable that they will encounter in the story. Here are some words from the story: 1. Meet the Words Current Admiration Immense Hurricane Navigation Backwashes Compass Luminous Plankton Breakers 2. Find the Syllables “This word is current. Read it with me. Point to the letters that make the /cur/ sound in current. What are the letters that make the /cur/ sound in current? Point to the letters that make the /rent/ sound in current. What letters are the letters that make the /rent/ sound in current? ” Continue with each word. (Can also play by asking students to come up and build specific words from list. ) 3. Collect the Words: Teacher input Current admiration immense hurricane navigation backwashes compass luminous plankton breakers hur i plank mense cur mir lum ton break rent ad wash nav in im ers back pass com ri ga tion ous tion a es cane Variation on Collect the Words: Students go up and find words themselves without directives from teacher. Beck, 1996 19

Strategy Activities: Vocabulary • • Concept Sorts Vocabulary Illustrations droll Thematic Word Walls Dramatizing Words Word Maps funny Vocabulary Venn Diagram Homophone Picture Cards comical Concept Circles humorous amusing 20

Activity Demo: Vocabulary Venn Diagram • Some very simple words in our language have more than one meaning. A vocabulary Venn Diagram is a useful and simple way to show children these multiple meaning words. river bank money fire 21

Activity Demo: Homophone Picture Cards See Sea I see things with my eyes. The boat was sailing on the vast sea. 22

Activity Demo: Concept Circles • • • What do these all have in common? Name the category or concept? ________ dog cat *What do these have in common? * Name another word that is similar to the other three. Name the concept/category * ________ turtle house cottage parrot trailer ? ? Which word doesn’t belong? Write the category/concept the other words represent. *_______ funny mean silly comical 23

Strategy Activities: Comprehension • Making predictions (Talking Drawings) • Making connections (T-S, T-T, T-W) using sticky notes (This reminds me of…) • Asking questions (making inferences, responding personally) ( I wonder why…? ) (Why do you think…? What makes you think so? If I was. . . I would…) • Visualizing, Guided Imagery; making mental pictures using sensory imaging • Using graphic organizers and story maps • Summarizing/retelling • Response journals 24

References Farris, P. J. , Fuhler, C. J. & Walther, M. P. (2004). Teaching reading: A balanced approach for today’s classrooms. Boston: Mc. Graw Hill. Gunning, T. G. (2004). Creating literacy instruction for all children. (4 th ed. ). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Mc. Gee, L. M. & Richgels, D. J. (2000). Literacy’s beginning: Supporting young readers and writers. (3 rd ed. ). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Ruddell, M. R. (1997). Teaching content reading and writing. (2 nd ed. ). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Tompkins, G. E. (2003). Literacy for the 21 st century. (3 rd ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. 25